by Rachel Schreiber
Dr. John Smith, veterinarian and owner of PetCare, is the oldest child of a large family. He grew up in Milford taking care of lots of little animals; he calls “my brothers and sisters.” He says, I’ve never gotten out of that mindset (taking care of people/animals) especially when they are small and helpless.” When he was 13 years old he rescued a red tailed hawk. He explains, “The hawk had probably been hit by car. Its wing was broken and being so young I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. I bandaged its wing, built a cage for it, fed it a hamburger and when the wing was healed, I let it go. After my medical training and education, I realized I might have done more harm than good for the bird, but I tried. This is a lesson I’ve remembered all my life, all you can do is the best you can do with the knowledge you have at the time.”
He attended College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University. With a brief foray working for a small vet chain in Detroit, which he describes as “very interesting.” Dr. Smith has owned Petcare for 20 years. His patients come from Washtenaw County and even Chicago and Toledo.
A personal medical issue changed his practice. He explains, “Six years ago I developed Trigger Finger. That’s when nodules form on the tendons. It’s like carpal tunnel except if you grip hard, your finger won’t open and it has to be pried open. The first time it happened, it sure got my attention. My doctor recommended surgery to open the tendon sheath so the tendons can slide through it better. But I’d have to have the surgery every three years, and that’s when I lost interest. The doctor told me when it hurts enough, you’ll be back. Having done surgery myself, I know you can only do surgery a limited number of times on the same issue. I thought I can do my job if I was (were) paralyzed, but I couldn’t do without my hands.”
Unsatisfied with his doctor’s prognosis, Dr. Smith investigated Trigger Finger via the internet. He says, “I discovered the disease has a connection to food sensitivity, such as meat, dairy, eggs and wheat. Being a vegan for 25 years I ruled out many foods quickly. However, wheat was on the list and wondered if that might be the problem. To test my theory I didn’t eat wheat for one weekend and after that weekend, my Trigger Finger was 90 percent better. That opened my eyes to all sorts of possibilities for my patients because in any kind of chronic condition, such as allergies, food plays a role.”
“Dogs are the poster animals for allergies. Their target organ for allergies is their skin, and dogs have endless skin problems like itching. Dogs react to what they eat. I am able to resolve problems the College of Veterinary Medicine at MSU and vet specialists cannot. We test for allergies though a blood panel. The problem is in interpreting the data and I knew food was going to be important. So I kept tweaking the results with my Trigger Finger and my patients’ food allergies until the problems went away,” Dr. Smith states.
The Institute for Functional Medicine, in Gig Harbor, WA is compromised of medical doctors, chiropractors, osteopaths, Dr. Smith suspects he’s the only vet who belongs. The institute is patient orientated rather than disease orientated. He explains, “We find out what’s wrong with the patient instead of taking a text book description of the disease and trying to fit the patient into the one of those profiles. For example, vets like to say, if the animal has atypical symptoms, the dog didn’t read the book. It’s looking at the entire patient and not just the disease.”
If you have found this story, interesting, informative or inspiring, please let Dr. Smith know. Petcare is located at 2894 Washtenaw Ave, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, 734-434-9055, http://dogdoctor.us, DrJohn@.DogDoctor.us